


The Moon Flower and the Coal: A Collection of One Shots

by riz_eli



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Angst, Domestic, Domestic Bliss, F/F, Flowers, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Loss, One Shot, One Shot Collection, Spoilers, They Make Me Very Sad, Useless Lesbians
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:01:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/riz_eli/pseuds/riz_eli
Summary: Random Dani/Jamie one shots that take place all throughout the show.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Kudos: 16





	The Moon Flower and the Coal: A Collection of One Shots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The first night in their apartment is not quite as either of them would have wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! This is a little short because I just wanted to get it started while I had time. I'm almost done with the semester, though, so I'm going to try and update fairly often as a way to take breaks from work!
> 
> If there's anything you want to see, let me know in the comments :)

There was something about her approaching death that made life only half real.

The first night in their new apartment, Dani lay awake, tracing patterns in the subtle fluctuations of the ceiling paint with her eyes. Jamie’s head rested on the pillow beside hers, Dani unable to bring herself to look over because although she had always felt that they’d known each other long before they met, there was a distance now. Jamie was alive, vividly so–– her plants filled every windowsill and her sarcasm bubbled into every corner of their new home, filling it with a peace and lightness that Dani had never known. In contrast, Dani could feel her spirit fading, crumbling to accommodate Her, and Jamie’s light seemed an impenetrable barrier as she watched from afar in her own bubble of darkness.

Jamie rolled onto her side, facing away from Dani. She glanced over, comforted by the new distance, admiring how the moonlight tangled itself into Jamie’s hair. Her shoulder was bare apart from the strap of a tank top, and her smooth skin seemed to glow faintly as Dani decided whether it would be such a crime to lean forward, to press her lips to her neck, to feel the slope of her shoulders, of her spine––

***

“How’d you sleep, Poppins?” Jamie asked, the cup of coffee in front of her already nearly empty.

Dani swirled the leftover coffee around in the coffee maker. “Good.” She poured herself a mug and stuck it in the microwave, leaning against the countertop, eyes fixed upon the wall.

“You’re up late. No later than usual, I guess,” Jamie said cracking a smile as she finished her coffee in one gulp.

“Yeah, no later than usual.” 

Jamie rose, sock-feet making light patters on the ground as she crept to Dani, wrapping her arms around her waist from behind. Dani stiffened.

“You alright, Dani?” Jamie asked, loosening her hold.

The microwave beeped, and Dani pulled her coffee out, slipping from Jamie’s arms and sitting across from where she had been seated at the table. Jamie returned to her seat, watching Dani like a deer that might bolt at any sudden movement.

“Stop it,” Dani said, raising the mug to her lips.

“Stop what?”

“Looking at me like that.”

“I’m looking at you like I always do, Poppins. You’re quite something, I suppose–– or you might be. Perhaps in the right lighting,” Jamie joked, though she could sense that it would not be well received.

“I’m gonna walk,” Dani said, and then set the mug down so hard that coffee sloshed over the rim and onto the table. She paid no mind and slipped out the door, hair unbrushed and still in pajamas. 

Jamie slumped in her chair.

***

––of her thighs. Dani traced a small circle on Jamie’s shoulder with her finger, and though she hoped not to wake her, Jamie rolled to face her, eyes fluttering open.

“Dani?” she asked, half awake.

“Shh,” Dani whispered, and as awful as she felt she might be, the look in Jamie’s eyes gave her hope that perhaps the light might erode away the darkness. 

Jamie kissed her gently on the lips, and just as she was about to pull away, Dani grasped her shoulders and pulled her close. Jamie hummed against her lips and Dani could feel her waking up as Jamie’s hands began to wander her waist, slipping beneath the thin fabric of her pajamas and lighting her stomach on fire in the way only Jamie’s touch could. She wanted that heat, that fire, that intensity–– she wanted something to burn away the rotting soul in her chest, something to ignite her lungs and her veins and her bones until even the darkest pit in her stomach was illuminated, no darkness left anywhere in her body. Jamie did not seem to have a complaint.

Dani fumbled for the hem of Jamie’s top, pulling it over her head and kissing down Jamie’s jaw to her neck, leaving marks in red and purple along her collar bone and moving down between her breasts. Jamie let out a soft laugh, using a finger to tilt Dani’s head up to hers.

“Lay on your back,” Jamie instructed, smiling as she ran her hands through the waves of blonde hair that fell over Dani’s shoulders. 

“I was going to––“

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Jamie said, tangling her limbs with Dani’s and rolling them over so she was above her. She lifted Dani’s shirt over her head, tossing it to the side. She slid a hand down her thigh and pressed a kiss to her stomach.

“Jamie––“

“No,” Jamie said, her hand sliding slowly up Dani’s thigh.

Dani felt her breath catch in her throat, arching her back as the anticipation ran through her body. Jamie’s hands stopped just short of where Dani most wanted them to be.

“Please,” Dani gasped.

“When you say it that way…” Jamie mumbled. “Look at me.”

And then, though Jamie had a couple carefully guarded but mostly touching things to say about their new home and about their new life and about the hope she held for them, no matter how limited their time might be, and how happy she was to be there, kissing her bare skin–– Dani looked down to meet her eyes and found them glowing in the light of some street lamp outside, shining tungsten orange and round like two moons plucked from the sky. The slightest turn of Jamie’s head and her eyes were simply hers, but Dani could not overcome the feeling that all things were fleeting, the moons and Eddie and herself but possibly even Jamie, too.

Dani pushed Jamie off of her and rolled to face the wall, burying her head in a fistful of blankets. She tried to be empty like those meditations she’d tried after Eddie’s funeral told her to be, but there was no longer an empty with the furious soul buzzing just inside of her ear, never quieting. Dani could feel Jamie’s hands on her back, could feel the warmth of her breath on her neck and assumed that she was saying nice, good things. Jamie was heat and fire, though, and heat and fire are not empty. 

Dani fell asleep thinking of emptiness. After Jamie felt her breath even into the lulls of sleep, she rose to brew a pot of coffee.


End file.
